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News and Activism

Big happenings in my world lately, dear friends. I got a new job as a TVI (Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments) for little ones from 0-3 and I couldn’t be more excited. I’ll be working at Perkins School for the Blind, the legendary school of Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller. This means I had to close my day care, which after 12 years was gut-wrenching and difficult. I will miss and think about my kids a lot in the coming months, wondering how they’re doing and if they’re happy in their new “homes.” I trust my local providers knowing how awesome they all are, and that the kids will adjust. Kids are resilient – moreso than their parents sometimes (and that includes me!).

Just because the day care is closed doesn’t mean this blog is shutting down – I’ll still be here writing about parenting, education issues, and even cooking up a few new projects like a podcast with one of my mentors, Pam Clark, who you may have read about on this blog before. I’ll be posting information about that in the coming months (hopefully – as the dust settles!).

My latest bit of activism is a letter to the editor of the NY Times in response to this article about our state’s supposed “rejection” of PARCC. What it really means to those of us fighting common core in MA is that they are going to re-brand PARCC by “combining” it with the MCAS test. Many of us are trying change the testing paradigm by drastically reducing how many times it is taken (students in MA take MCAS EVERY YEAR from 3rd – 11th grade) and removing the connection of test results to teacher performance. (Some of us would like testing eliminated altogether but, baby steps.)

My letter won’t get published because things move fast nowadays – I took a digital break for Thanksgiving and missed the whole comment period. But that’s why I have this blog.

Before I print the letter I want to thank you all for your continued support. Thanks for reading, and please continue to look for more parenting fun and loudly shouted opinions coming from my little corner over here. 🙂

To the Editor:

The article “Massachusetts’s Rejection of Common Core Test Signals Shift in U.S.” (Nov. 21) downplays the narrative of what has really happened to teachers and students in Massachusetts and the stubbornly blind eyes and deaf ears that policymakers have turned to their constituents. It overlooks the fact that there has been a statewide grassroots organization of thousands of parents, grandparents, teachers, aides, and students to create a 2016 ballot issue to remove common core. Our voices have been ignored and downplayed while Mitchell Chester et al inform us that we are too stupid to understand what’s going on in our schools, and what’s really good for our children.

Last April the state rolled out its pilot of the PARCC test. The culture surrounding this issue has been a draconian, keep your mouth shut or lose your job environment. Teachers have been fired for speaking out against the methods prescribed by common core. Though most teachers oppose common core and PARCC tests, they are afraid to speak the truth to the parents in their classrooms because this threat looms heavy.

Some teachers reached out to trusted allies who would be able to speak publicly on the subject. We met in dark restaurants out of our district to avoid being seen. Parents were told we couldn’t opt out, but had to “refuse” the tests. Parents received threatening letters and phone calls from principals, attempting to coerce them to make their children take the test. In some cases, principals did not accept refusals from parents and tried to get the child, while sitting in the classroom preparing to take the test, to tell their teacher that they were refusing. Students were forced to take tests against their parents’ will because seven-year-olds aren’t developmentally capable of looking their teacher in the eye and telling them no. Stories like this in varying degrees happened all across the state, and that doesn’t even cover what happened to children with special needs or IEPs, who are the biggest victims of PARCC testing.

Most of the people making federal policy and commenting in articles on education are not teachers. They haven’t worked in classrooms nor do they understand children and their development. Education is a female-dominated profession under siege by international businesses looking to make money off education budgets. Last April and May our schools had over 30 days of testing. My children sat out because I don’t send them to school to function as guinea pigs for the Pearson corporation.